44 replies to this topic

[Penance]

Thontor, on 10 December 2012 - 11:48 AM, said:

I don't think he's being sarcastic.

And if you take "this game" to mean Battletech, he's not wrong.

Well, he's wrong about the M1 Abrams, but not about technology in general.

I wasn't being sarcastic, and i did mean the Battletech universe as a whole and as you pointed out, knowing that, my thought process made some sense (with the exception of not knowing when the Abrams was commissioned). I also went on a tangent. I went on about the games technology in general and the OP is really asking for a targeting computer. Although, they tie into each other in some ways. On a side note, look at a game like Dungeons and Dragons, over the years there have been numerous reprintings and adjustments to the rules...Battletech to my knowledge has had no revising, maybe a spattering here and there, but nothing in terms of an overhaul / update. So here we are in the year 2012, playing a game based on technology and rules thought up from @ 1980.

I don't like things too easy. Too easy (and a Targeting PC is easy mode) and then a game looses its "fun", too hard and it becomes frustrating. The main issue I think the OP is getting at is the lag shield light mechs have. I mean, lets be honest, if the OP is having a hard time leading a medium or heavier mech with a shot, he's bad. I doubt that's the issue though. I think we've all run across the frustration of taking out a medium or heavier mech, getting into a game, and hitting light mechs only to do 0 damage to them due to lag.

With the inception of ECM, streaks, one of the favorite among players for hitting lights, has been gimped so to speak. So now what? Players need to adjust to this and use SRMS, and lasers, but when they're (light mechs) jumping all over the place, it makes it difficult.

The best fix is to fix the game so lights don't warp the way they do...also collisions will alleviate some of the need as lights will be falling down.

Had the TT rules gotten some revisions, I'm sure we'd see more technology items that would seem like they were offshoots of what was available during the current times.

Edited by Penance, 10 December 2012 - 12:39 PM.

[potatoparrot]

Joseph Mallan, on 10 December 2012 - 12:14 PM, said:

However better does not necessitate OP.
Are SSRMs competitive (with or without ECM)
Is a Gauss Compteative
Is a better targeting system automatically not competitive?

Also good explanation Jings

If that improved targetting system, one that decreases the learning curve and amount of skill needed to reliably land shots, is handed to all players - It makes no impact on the balance, but drops the skill ceiling, thus harming the competitive side.

Think of the skill ceiling as the top of a graph that tends toward infinity at a decreasing rate. As players progress, they get closer and closer to that skill ceiling as they perfectly master the game. The lower the skill ceiling, the closer players will get in terms of skill much earlier as there are fewer skills to master. Catastrophically, if the skill ceiling is low enough then everyone could end up at the same skill level rather quickly indeed!

By having a high skill ceiling by having features that are difficult to master (aiming being one of them) then players take longer to reach the skill ceiling (hopefully they never will) and the game remains competitive as a result. Competitivity relies on differing skill levels - If we're all just as good at a perfectly balanced game, it'd be incredibly boring since we'd always draw!

[Roughneck45]

Joseph Mallan, on 10 December 2012 - 12:00 PM, said:

Oh and Roughneck... Lag shield.

Netcode problem, not gameplay.

[SpiralRazor]

SI The Joker, on 10 December 2012 - 08:44 AM, said:

Great idea, but I'd like to see the dev team fry the bigger fish, first.

putting in some optional reticules is most likely just a small amount of coding work..


Personally, i think the current reticule is A too big and B not transparent enough.


Id love a downloadable mod to change the reticule

[Penance]

Roughneck45, on 10 December 2012 - 12:25 PM, said:

Netcode problem, not gameplay.

as I said, fixing this will fix soooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo much.